Wild’s defensive woes, Marco Rossi’s first NHL goal: Key takeaways against Maple Leafs

One game after the Minnesota Wild were shut out on opening night at home, the Maple Leafs lit the lamp for fun despite analytics showing the Wild had a five-on-five advantage for 50 minutes of play. In a 7-4 shellack as the wheels came off for the Wild in the third period, Auston Matthews became the first Toronto player in history to open the season with straight hat-tricks and William Nylander scored twice. The Wild cut the deficit to 4-3 and had ample chances to tie the score but were unable to get past Ilya Samsonov again. What’s even more troubling is that Matt Boldy, the Wild’s leading forward in this game with a goal and five shots, and Pat Marrone were injured in the third period. The Leafs have beaten the Wild five in a row and have points in seven straight against them.

After one game of good defense despite being in their own zone too much against Florida, the Wild showed how much they miss leader Jared Spurgeon. Couple Jake Middleton and Alex Goligoski had a particularly terrible night. Middleton was on the ice for four goals against Goligoski for three — he skated on Toronto’s third goal with 22 seconds left in the first — and committed a penalty kick that led to the Maple Leafs’ fourth goal. John Merrill also had two goals and Calen Addison had two goals. Even Jonas Brodin made unusual changes. But poor play from Middleton-Goligoski caused assistant coach Bob Woods to separate them twice in the second half. Unfortunately, they got back together on Matthews’ hat-trick.

This time, Marco Rossi scored his first NHL goal

One game after scoring what he thought was Al-Gamal’s first NHL goal only to have it erased because Marcus Foligno was offside, Marco Rossi scored his first NHL goal this time for real in the second period. With the Wild buzzing after Boldy cut the deficit to two, Brock Faber netted for the second time of the game. Samsonov screened the ball directly to Foligno, then sent Foligno’s rebound into the air towards Rossi. The rookie hit the puck for his first goal in his 23rd NHL game. It was fitting that Foligno got the primary assist after saying he owed Rossi dinner for the overturned goal two nights earlier.

Lots of passes from the top line

You’d think they would have learned from the simple way Ryan Hartman scored the first goal of the game. He was camped in front and simply redirected Kirill Kaprizov’s shot. But from that point on, Mats Zuccarello, Hartmann and Kaprizov became too bland to connect on another goal. Zuccarello, in particular, continued to try to set up Kaprizov for his first goal of the season and it had to feel like they left too many goals on the ice, especially in the first period.

turning point

With the Wild trailing 2-1 at halftime, Kaprizov fired a shot from between the circles with three-quarters of the net empty. Then, 40 seconds after Samsonov blocked Rossi’s quick shot off a partial breakaway, Marcus Johansson committed a careless foul to allow the puck to go past in the final minute. Nylander then made a great play to give Toronto a 3-1 lead heading into intermission.

Three stars

1. Auston Matthews, Maple Leafs: Scored three goals and now has 10 in 11 career games against Minnesota.

2. William Nylander, Maple Leafs: The star right winger had two goals on six shots and an assist.

3. Brock Faber, Wild: Wild Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight game. It was his rise to the net that set up Rossi’s first goal.

Quotes from the game

“We gave them everything tonight.” – Foligno.

“It can’t happen. You can’t take (a) stupid, bad penalty – really stupid – and Goose knows that. We’ve addressed it, but it can’t happen. It can’t happen in the second game, and it can’t happen in the future.” – Coach Dean Evason for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the third period by Goligoski that changed the momentum with the Wild down 4-3.

“Yes, the duplication, the missed coverages, the penalties, it’s obviously just an undisciplined play on our part.” — Goligoski talks about the match in his district.

(Photo: Kevin Souza/NHLI via Getty Images)